By reiterating Japan’s “unshakable” apology for World War II and legalising the necessary enhancements to operate its Self-Defence Forces like a normal national armed force of a state, Shinzo Abe (Prime Minister 2006-7, 2012-present) has done a meritorious job to… Read More ›

Bo Xilai
China aims at long term elimination of corruption by legislation
The recent development of Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption storm is the investigation of fourteen People’s Liberation Army (PLA) generals including Major General Guo Zhenggang, the son of Guo Boxiong, who retired as vice chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC) in… Read More ›
New China urges increased hostility towards the west
Even as his government was making red-carpet plans to host President Obama this week, the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, praised a young blogger whose writing is best known here for its anti-American vitriol. In one widely circulated essay published by… Read More ›
China: The theory behind conservatives power struggle with reformists
In the expanded 2nd edition of my book Tiananmen’s Tremendous Achievements, I describe in details the commencement of the power struggle between reformists and conservatives. This was done by Hu Jintao’s omission of Mao Zedong Thought, Bo Xilai’s rise as… Read More ›
China’s Xi Jinping unable to rule if unaware of conservative faction’s strength
Some analysts are nervous when they hear Chinese President Xi Jinping upholding Mao Zedong Thought. Will Xi resume Mao’s policies of class struggle and constant revolution, they wonder. Xi’s predecessor Hu Jintao tried to omit Mao Zedong Thought, but enabled… Read More ›
Huge discounts on Kindle version of Tiananmen’s Tremendous Achievements is extended internationally
China Daily Mail contributor Chan Kai Yee has announced that 70% discounts on the Kindle version of his book are now in place until the end of June 2014. The discounts are now available in the countries listed below, using… Read More ›
Book Review: “Tiananmen’s Tremendous Achievements” by Chan Kai Yee
Acclaimed author Chan Kai Yee has released an expanded second edition of his book “Tiananmen’s Tremendous Achievements,” released June 4 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre. Throughout the month of June, the price of the printed version… Read More ›
China celebrates Mao’s 120th birthday, but events scaled back
China celebrates the 120th birthday of Mao Zedong, the founder of modern China, on Thursday, but will be scaling back festivities as President Xi Jinping embarks on broad economic reforms which have unsettled leftists. Mao has become a potent symbol… Read More ›
Supporters of China’s disgraced Bo Xilai set up new political party
Reuters says in its exclusive news today: Supporters of China’s disgraced senior politician Bo Xilai, who has been jailed for corruption, have set up a political party, two separate sources said, in a direct challenge to the ruling Communist Party’s… Read More ›
The mess in China’s rule of law
China’s anti-corruption typhoon goes on with the latest casualty being Tian Xueren, former Jilin vice governor. According to Beijing Wanbao (Beijing Evening News), on 85 occasions, Tian took bribes worth 19.19 million yuan ($3 million) but on November 1, he… Read More ›
China’s Bo Xilai allowed to appeal against life in jail
A court in eastern China on Wednesday allowed ousted former senior politician Bo Xilai to appeal against a guilty verdict on charges of corruption and abuse of power handed out last month which earned him a life sentence. Bo was… Read More ›
China’s anti-graft storm begins in earnest
Since Bo Xilai was given the verdict of life imprisonment, China’s mass line campaign has been developing into an anti-corruption campaign. On September 24, Reuters reported that China would audit military officials in a move to fight graft. On September… Read More ›
History shows that Japan and China have very different futures
I’ve frequently come across the view that China is on track to become like Japan but with 10 times the population. It is a form of wishful thinking that drives a great deal of investment in China in the hope… Read More ›
‘Hidden income’ makes China’s rich wealthier than thought
Hong Kong — China’s urban rich are making far more than they officially report, suggesting the wealth gap in the world’s second largest economy is much higher than previously thought, according to a new study. The China Society of Economic… Read More ›
China’s Bo Xilai gets life in jail; conservatives deprived of charismatic leader
Chinese rule-of-law and reformist factions’ power struggle against Bo Xilai and his faction was a vital battle for the establishment and implementation of the rule of law and further economic reform. In a nutshell, the fight concerned the rule of… Read More ›
China: Xi Jinping chosen by Jiang Zemin as successor and core of CCP
I describe in the first edition of my book “Tiananmen’s Tremendous Achievements” that China’s current political system is the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) Dynasty with a core of leadership equivalent to an emperor. Jiang Zemin remained the core after full… Read More ›
Denial-of-service attack shuts down Chinese Internet on Sunday morning
The attack began at 2 a.m. Sunday morning and was followed by a more intense attack at 4 a.m., according to the China Internet Network Information Center, which apologized to affected users in its statement and said it is working to improve… Read More ›
Bo Xilai leaves poisonous legacy in China
A rising political star. A murderous wife. An attempted cover-up. A runaway police chief. A playboy son. A secret French villa. A corrupt official. A political downfall. This conflagration of events surrounding the former high-ranking Chinese official Bo Xilai has captured… Read More ›
Chinese Police Detain Online Commentator Xue Manzi
Chinese authorities are sending a chill through the country’s boisterous community of online social commentators as police detained a prominent Web user and state media stepped up calls for a crackdown on what they describe as spreading rumors online. Xue… Read More ›
China’s Bo Xilai tries to save his skin
The trial of Bo Xilai started to turn into an episode of Maury. Revelations about the tangled web of strained and complicated relationships within his family were used as his testimony, particularly when the evidence seemed most piled up against… Read More ›
China arrests activist who campaigned about leaders’ wealth
Police have arrested one of China’s most prominent rights activists who has called for officials to disclose their wealth, his lawyer said on Friday, raising the stakes in the government’s crackdown on anti-graft campaigners. The arrest of Xu Zhiyong, who… Read More ›
China: Son of prominent general on trial for rape sparks public outcry
The people of China are tired of party officials and their families thinking they are above the law. The children of party officials are especially criticized and seen as “spoiled” because of their behavior. The feelings of outrage surrounding the… Read More ›
I was framed, says China’s Bo as he mounts feisty defence
Fallen politician Bo Xilai put up a feisty defence on Thursday as he faced China’s most political trial in decades, saying he was framed in one of the bribery charges against him and had admitted to it against his will during… Read More ›
China’s Xi Jinping disappoints world by promoting Maoist revival
In a move sure to dismay the people inside and outside China who hoped Xi Jinping would begin a new era of democratic reform, China’s president has “lurched” to the left, as the WSJ reports, promoting a revitalised version of nationalist Maoism… Read More ›
China’s Bo Xilai to stand trial Thursday
The trial of disgraced senior Chinese politician Bo Xilai will start on Thursday, when he will face charges of bribery, corruption and abuse of power in China’s most divisive and dramatic case in decades. The long-awaited trial of Bo, 64,… Read More ›
China charges Bo Xilai with corruption, paves way for trial
China charged disgraced senior politician Bo Xilai with bribery, abuse of power and corruption on Thursday, paving the way for a potentially divisive trial that President Xi Jinping will want smoothly handled as he pushes major economic reforms. Bo, 64, could… Read More ›
What to make of Xi Jinping’s Maoist turn
With a number of Mao-like pronouncements emanating from Beijing in recent months, some observers of Chinese politics think Xi Jinping might be turning Maoist. The most recent example is an editorial published earlier this week in the authoritative People’s Daily… Read More ›
Greatest danger for China and the world: Reemergence of a tyrant
Sinocentric Cosmology: China has a long history of regarding itself as the centre of the world due to its ignorance of the existence of the other parts of the world that were much larger and even stronger than it. It… Read More ›
Exposure via internet now China’s top weapon in war on graft
Think tank finds online reports spur far more corruption investigations than traditional media. The internet has become the primary tool for exposing corruption on the mainland, “removing a corrupt official with the click of a mouse”, according to a leading… Read More ›
China’s Communist party takes page from Mao’s playbook
China’s Communist party has unleashed a rectification campaign of a scale and tone not seen in more than a decade as the leadership seeks to address the frustration over corrupt officials while avoiding bold political reforms. As investors wait for party chief… Read More ›
China executes official for child rapes
Authorities in central China executed a former Communist Party official for raping 11 underage girls, state media said on Wednesday, following an online uproar about the latest case of abuse of power. Li Xingong, who was the party’s deputy head… Read More ›
Being a Chinese official: Not all it’s cracked up to be
Being a Communist Party cadre has its advantages. But there are risks, too. Life as a Chinese government official isn’t what it used to be. Lavish, liquor-heavy banquets have been outlawed. It will soon be harder to get those military license plates,… Read More ›
A new female generation of “princesslings” in China?
If you follow Chinese politics at all, you’ll have heard of a word that’s become synonymous with corruption and privilege — “princeling”. The term refers to the offspring of Chinese party officials, and is often used to describe those who leverage… Read More ›
China’s inner circle: The three black boxes
In Reuters analysis titled “Analysis of China’s next inner circle”, foreign media again shows its ignorance about China. However, the ignorance is natural. There are three black boxes in China’s power centre. Elaborated description of them will be given in… Read More ›
Danger of second Cultural Revolution as migrant workers in China are alienated
Despite spending years working in mainland cities, migrant workers still feel like outsiders. In its report titled Migrant workers feel like outsiders in mainland cities, says survey, SCMP says: “Many workers who flock to mainland cities feel alienated and have… Read More ›
China: Justice at last for criminal defence lawyers persecuted in Beihai
There have been lots of changes since Bo Xilai took over the reigns especially the sweeping anti-corruption drive, the closure of black jails that local governments used to lock up petitioners and informers, the imprisonment of thugs who intercepted petitioners… Read More ›
Chinese government persecution of Christians
ChinaAid releases 2012 Annual Report On ‘Chinese Government Persecution Of Christians & Churches In Mainland China’. Government persecution of Christians and churches in mainland China deteriorated for the seventh straight year, ChinaAidsaid in its annual report, with the defining characteristic… Read More ›
Trial of China’s Bo Xilai opens next week
China‘s disgraced former senior politician, Bo Xilai, will go on trial next week, a Beijing-backed Hong Kong newspaper said on Friday, in what would be the final act of a drama that has shaken the ruling Communist Party. Bo, once… Read More ›
Where’s Bo Xilai? The case of China’s glamour couple
Compared to almost a year ago, the glamorous couple Bo Xilai and Gu Kailai have disappeared into oblivion. Bo Xilai – former ambitious mayor of the Manchurian port of Dalian and urbane Commerce Minister of China – had aspirated on the highest levels… Read More ›
New York Times journalist forced to leave China
China apparently expelled a New York Times journalist after the paper ran a damaging report about the hidden wealth of outgoing premier Wen Jiabao and his family. Australian national Chris Buckley, who recently re-joined The New York Times after working as… Read More ›
The ABC of China politics in 2012
It was supposed to be a momentous year – a major leadership change on the centenary of the last emperor’s abdication. But 2012 turned out to be a mess for China. It squabbled with neighbours on a seemingly unceasing series… Read More ›
Southern China officials called on to be monogamous
An anti-graft official in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou called on government and Communist Party officials to be faithful to their spouses after a slew of local scandals, the China Daily reported today. Mei Heqing, a standing member of the communist… Read More ›
The mistress-industrial complex in China
Is adultery the key to solving China’s corruption problem? Among the many notable features of the latest grainy sex tape circulating on the Chinese Internet — a video of former Chongqing official Lei Zhengfu atop his then-18-year-old mistress in 2007… Read More ›
China: Anti-corruption tsar hears calls for transparency
China’s ruling elite should be forced to disclose their assets, according to proposals put to the new anti-corruption tsar, it was reported on Monday as news of another graft scandal broke. Pressure on the Communist Party to combat corruption has… Read More ›
Li Keqiang’s roadmap on further economic reform in China
According to Singtao Daily’s comprehensive report, on November 21, just one week after being reelected into the Politburo Standing Committee that ensures his succession to retiring premier Wen Jiabao, Li Keqiang pointed out at a working conference on pilot projects… Read More ›
Journalist taken away on ‘vacation’ for revealing trash bin deaths of five boys
SCMP reports: “A former journalist who broke the story of the deaths of five street children in Bijie, Guizhou, a week ago has been sent on ‘a vacation’ by local authorities trying to contain the fallout from the tragedy. “Li… Read More ›
Did news story on riches of China’s Premier weaken reformists?
The hot pot of Chinese politics is still boiling madly after the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party and the leadership transition that took place in Beijing on November 14, 2012. Many see the composition of the new Politburo… Read More ›
China: Interesting messages from top non-democratic election
SCMP reports: “Ling Jihua, Hu’s former top aide, overcomes scandal of son’s death, and ‘no’ votes, to join Central Committee, the party’s ruling body” perhaps due to his mentor Hu Jintao’s efforts. “However, 94 delegates voted against his re-election, showing… Read More ›
Locked up in China by Mao, U.S. ex-revolutionary places hopes on Xi Jinping
Incoming Chinese president Xi Jinping has a “democratic style” that will allow him to lay the groundwork for much-needed political and economic reforms, one of only a handful of Americans to join the Chinese Communist Party said on Monday. Sidney… Read More ›
China web users greet Hu speech with derision
Chinese internet users have evaded censors to take potshots at President Hu Jintao’s assessment of his performance in a farewell speech, saying the country is walking down a dead-end road in “broken shoes”. Hu launched a week-long Communist Party congress… Read More ›